Fountain pens and inks reviewed

2016 Purchases

Another year has come and gone. It is time to tally up my purchases for the year. I have purchased 20 pens and returned 1, that makes 19 pens. Surprisingly, I also have purchased 19 bottles of ink. I swear that wasn’t on purpose. I have purchased the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter, a custom A5 leather cover both of which I’ve sold before settling for the Midori Traveler’s Notebook. Out of the 19 pens, 4 were sold within the year notably among them was the OMAS Arte Italiana. It doesn’t pay to rush into the hype and buy things without serious consideration. Only 2 inks made such a turn around.

Looking into my pen purchases, out of the 19 pens, 9 were Japanese pens. Well, that’s not surprising since that’s reflected in my pen collection. There were a good mix for the inks. The majority was dominated by Sailor thanks to the re-issue of their older 4 seasons ink series. I’ve also purchased a new Block.

In total I’ve spend more than $5000 this year just for my pens. It is really scary when you tally up your purchases like this. Slightly less than half of it was the price of my Nakaya Piccolo - A Fox with the Harvest Moon so technically if I don’t get another super pricy pen I shouldn’t be looking at such a figure next year. In the ink department, I spend considerably less, coming in at slightly over $300. Adding in the various notebook covers I’ve purchased along with the accessories I think this year I’ve spend at least $6000. I can’t be absolutely sure because I didn’t keep a close track on the price of the various accessories I bought for the Traveler’s Notebook. At the same time, I’ve recuperated slightly over $1500 from selling some pens, inks and accessories. All in all, 2016 has been a fruitful year in terms of purchases. Do you dare tally your pen and pen related purchases?